Speaking of which, I doubt the Chinese came to the Americas unless everyone in the expedition crew was reviewed by doctors before setting off for the voyage. Otherwise the Native-Americans in both north and south continents would've been wiped out by Asian-born plagues.
I mean the Black Death killed off about what... 1/4 to 1/3 of the European population??? What chances do the Native-Americans, Aztecs, Mayans, Incas and etc. have against diseases like that?

(because)..... if you see several thousand armored soldiers marching off the 500 ft long 9-masted "super junks" docked along the bay and look at your kingdom's outclassed and dwarfed caravels, xebecs, bugis, and other ships/boats you'd better pay up.

Even a country today with their patrol boats and cutters will play nice to the visitors whose Nimitz class carrier shows up in their harbors.

JPinoy wrote:(because)..... if you see several thousand armored soldiers marching off the 500 ft long 9-masted "super junks" docked along the bay and look at your kingdom's outclassed and dwarfed caravels, xebecs, bugis, and other ships/boats you'd better pay up.

Even a country today with their patrol boats and cutters will play nice to the visitors whose Nimitz class carrier shows up in their harbors.

That's why I called it extortion.

Redwine the Ribald: Stare long enough into the abyss...
Two-Tonic Tippler: ...and you spit into it.

If you mean swashbuckling as in going around conquering people.... thats not what China's sea voyages were for.

Nope, I didn't mean going around and conquering - I meant they were not inspired with a spirit of exploration, trade, and good ol' fashioned greed - for example, the famous example of Christopher who attmpted to make a very long and crazy voyage around the flat world to find a way to India for spice trading; Magellan did go around the entire planet for exploration and what-not, the Dutch landed on Taiwan to set up trading for all sorts of spices and goods.

>phew< (taking a breath)

I guess the point is that I think western civilizations were somewhat racing to uncover riches and make discoveries all around the world - which is what makes them different from the Chinese, who were far less concerned with exploration, and far-flung sailing trips, especially during it's times of instability and invasion.

Of course, there is a possibility of it, and anything could have happened, so I would never rule it out either.

Knight Templar n. pl. Knights Templars or Knights Templar1.A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade.

My personal thoughts after reading the book are that the author makes a very convincing case for his hypothosis. In fact, from what I gather the only thing that prevented China from aquiring a world-spanning empire is that in the power struggle after the sitting emperor (forgot his name ) died, the beauracrats won and stopped the voyages, which they saw as a threat to their own power.

I would love to see any parts of this made into LEGO - I may do some myself - , although the ships seem to have been so mind-numbingly huge that it's like comparing the Red Beard Runner to the Battle Dragon.